Leg 1 - St. Patrick's Day

Well, I decided to start the trip in Cleveland, OH, more specifically Troy. Troy and I have been friends since our trip to Germany. I literally did not this man until I went on this trip. Met him once before at a paintball venture in Dayton with our mutual friend Timothy R. We have been great friends ever since. Troy and I decided we needed to hang out and what better weekend than St. Patrick's Day. And wouldn't you know it, it fell on a weekend this year. We had hoped to make an epic trip but the cost to benefit ratio was not panning out, so it was decided to have me drive to Cleveland to see him and hang out with his buddies. I saw this coming the minute we started planning for the trip. Thus, began my scheming for the planning of the 5 week trip. Why 5 weeks? Because there are 5 weeks between St. Patrick's Day weekend and Mike P's bachelor party in Pit-In-Bay, OH.

Any who. Within the first hour of driving to Cleveland, OH, my Check Engine Service light came on. (Another flashback. Get used to it. It will happen often. It is how my mind works.) There was a lot of talk on how I would get out to Los Angeles and back. I always joked that I would take my trusty 1998 Nissan Altima and if it dies, it dies and I will go from there. The car has 175,000 miles on it before I left. I took my car in to the shop to get checked out and have an oil change. Also, the same engine light actually came on the Monday before I planned on leaving. Everything checks out. I am betting on why the light came back on was because they never cleared the system after looking at the engine. (Some of the engine's pistons/spark plugs failed to fire was the initial reason.) So I drove up to Cleveland.

Made it Troy's place in good timing. I was able to avoid most of Friday's traffic in Columbus and Cleveland. We decide to go up to his roof to try out the camera and have a couple of brews before heading out for dinner with Dave and his girlfriend Sarah. While enjoying our dinner and each other's company, we couldn't help but notice across the way that a dude was breaking up with his girlfriend after ordering food and before being delivered. We were all shocked as wee all agreed she was quite and attractive girl. Troy and I debated approaching her but she walked out before we finished our debate. I told him he had to go. He had no opening line. Disappointing.

Anyways, after dinner we went out to a bar Troy told me I had to go to. Dave and Sarah were up for it, so off we went. Since Xavier was playing that night and since it was March Madness was on, all I really wanted to do was watch the games. After many approaches by women at the bar, one told me there were televisions upstairs in a room to watch the game, so I didn't have to keep looking at my phone for updates. I was in. I was gone for like an hour and Troy and Dave thought I had been taken and wouldn't be heard from ever again. A long trip ending quite quickly for the big guy. I finally returned and enjoyed the rest of the evening with the gents and lady.

The goal for St. Patrick's Day was to get up by 9:00 and start the festivities. I don't think we got out of bed until 10:00 and then started making a glorious breakfast. Hash browns, tater tots, and eggs with corned beef. It was all delicious. Eric and friends also joined us for morning breakfast and drinks. We all headed to the roof to enjoy the warm morning sun and check out the nice view of downtown Cleveland.



We drew up a game plane and headed downtown. We had two cabs and one decided to go to Blind Pig and the other some bar 10 blocks away. Why? I don't know. I was in the correct cab that went to Blind Pig. Troy, Dave, some guy, and me stayed for a couple of drinks and ventured out to find the other group of people. Then, there was bar hopping throughout the day. At one of ouyr last bars, we saw two fights happen within the first 10 minutes of arriving and actually watched a guy being dragged out on his head out the door. I recommend not doing this in the future as it did not look like much fun. Other than those fights, the bar was pretty cool with two floors and a live band. The live band were truly rocking it. We just sat there and watched them play as we drank our drinks. By 5:00/5:30, we were ready to head back and regroup to prepare for the evening. It was only Troy, Dave, and I who made it back. Everyone else was M.I.A. We chilled for an hour. Troy slept. Dave hung out with his girlfriend. I watched basketball, finally! We all headed to Dewey’s in Lakewood and out to the bars in the Lakewood area. Troy was milking his drink, and soon we were ordering shots back and forth for the rest of the night.

The next morning wasn't too bad. I was mostly just really tired and had no desire of really to start driving out to the West Coast, but I knew I had to get to Chicago by the evening and before the Xavier game started. I left by early afternoon and began my journey outward. O what adventures lay ahead I do not know but was excited and nervous for the journey.

Go Big Or Go Home

For more pictures of St. Patrick's Day, go here:

Pictures out on the town were taken with my wonderful Droid Bionic phone. I didn't want to risk something happening to my brand new camera out there with all the crazy people.